Gymnast Oksana Chusovitina Prepares for 7th Olympics at 41

She says "it's a pity there are no points for age"

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Uzbekistan's Oksana Chusovitina competes during the artistic gymnastics test event Women's Vault final for the Rio 2016 Olympic games at the Rio Olympic Arena of the Olympic Park in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on April 18, 2016. At age 41, she will be the oldest Olympic female gymnast in history.

In the retro-looking gym that serves as the talent-honing center for Germany's potential Olympian gymnasts, girls aged 6 and 7 in leotards execute their somersaults and back flips under watchful trainers.

From a distance, it is difficult to distinguish Oksana Chusovitina from the kids. However, she has a son who is about three times the age of the young aspiring gymnasts.

Only when she approaches, do features on her small frame reveal differences: The muscles hardened by years of top-level competition, and the lines around the face tell of experience.

Chusovitina will compete at her seventh Olympics when she goes to Rio de Janeiro, becoming the oldest Olympic female gymnast in history at age 41.

"I am feeling good," she said, speaking German in an interview with The Associated Press. "On the podium, everyone is the same whether you are 40 or 16. You have to go out and do your routine and your jumps.

"But it's a pity there are no points for age," she added, breaking into an easy smile.

Chusovitina, back representing her native Uzbekistan, is an anachronism in an age when gymnasts enter major competitions at 16, and most are teenagers. A legal limit was imposed to prevent ever younger girls coming to competitions.

Chusovitina's best chance for a medal in Rio is the vault, in which she won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Games, then competing for Germany. She has 10 medals in the vault at world championships, plus one in the floor.

But she is reluctant to speak about a podium finish in Rio.

"I don't want to talk about the podium or the medals. I first want to prepare in the time before the games, fly to Brazil, and be healthy," she said.

Alisher is the reason Chusovitina mostly lives and trains in Germany. She is married to Uzbekistan's Olympic wrestler, Bakhodir Kuranov, and their son was born in 1999.

In 2002, Alisher was diagnosed with leukemia. Unable to get treatment for her son or to pay for it, Chusovitina came to Germany at the invitation of a club in Cologne. A fundraising campaign and money she earned in competitions paid for Alisher's treatment, and he is fully recovered. Approaching his 17th birthday, Alisher is more interested in basketball than in gymnastics.

During Alisher's treatment, Chusovitina competed for Germany, winning silver in the vault in Beijing and a pair of world championship medals.